A New Skill
by TheNorthernBelle
Summary: Katara discovers a new skill that will both thrill and terrify her.  Zutara.


A/N: Just a random thought I had the other day about what Katara and Zuko's kids would be like.

Hope ya'll like it, though I will say that I'm not entirely satisfied with the ending. But I couldn't come up with an alternative ending so this is what it is.

Katara raced through the halls of the Fire Nation Palace, desperate to reach her destination. Panic was gripping her body and mind to the point that she could barely think straight. Her only coherent thought was that she had to find Zuko. He would be able to figure this out. He would be able to calm her down.

The tiny part of her brain that was still thinking clearly did a quick run-through of Zuko's schedule; he should be in the throne room meeting with anybody who had requested an audience with the Fire Lord. Katara wouldn't normally interrupt Zuko when he was meeting with his subjects, but this was an emergency.

As she turned the corner and the doors to the throne room came into view, Katara noticed two guards come forward to intercept her. "Sorry m'lady, but Fire Lord Zuko asked that his meeting not be disturbed," one of the guards told her.

"Let me in," Katara snapped.

"I'm sorry Lady Katara, but Lord Zuko said he should only be interrupted if there was an emergency," the other guard explained.

Katara didn't put a lot of thought into her next movements; she just acted. She reached out for the water in the air and called it to her hand, forming it into a water whip. "Let. Me. In."

The guards were smart enough not to question her. They hurried to open the throne room doors, bowing low as their Fire Lady swept past them.

As soon as she cleared the doors, she was running again. "Zuko!"

Zuko and the two men he was meeting with looked up as Katara's cry pierced through their conversation. The visitors had annoyed expressions on their faces due to the rude interruption, but as soon as they saw that it was Katara coming towards them, they leapt from their seats and bowed to her. "Lady Katara."

Katara ignored them completely. Her eyes were focused solely on Zuko's.

"What's wrong?" he asked quickly as he took in his wife's frenzied state.

For a split moment Katara calmed herself enough to form a semi-coherent sentence. "Oh you know, not too much. I woke up, I meditated, I firebended; you know, the usual."

"Wait, what?"

"I firebended!" Katara all but screamed, her panic returning. "I nearly burned everything in my garden!"

Zuko stared at her, seeing the fear hidden in her eyes. He turned to his guests. "Gentlemen, I'm sorry but we'll have to reschedule." Without waiting for a reply he got to his feet and swept Katara up into his arms, ignoring her loud protests. He stalked towards the back door of the throne room, his mouth set into a tight line. He snapped hurried orders to the guards stationed on the other side of the door, and then took a series of hidden passage ways that ultimately led to his and Katara's chambers.

As soon as they were inside, he set Katara down on the bed, and took a seat besides her. "How are you feeling? Tell me exactly what happened."

"If I knew what happened I wouldn't be panicking now, would I?" Katara snapped at him in frustration.

Zuko reached out and pulled her into his arms. He immediately noticed that she felt really warm. "Deep breaths Katara. It's all right; I'm here." His hands ghosted along her back, moving in soothing circles to try to relax the tension he felt there. As Katara's breaths slowed down, Zuko moved one hand to her hair, pulling out the pins so her chocolate brown locks cascaded down her back. He started running his hands through it, knowing it calmed her more than anything.

"Zuko, what is wrong with me?" Katara whispered as she felt the last of her panic fading away.

"Nothing is wrong with you; you're perfect," Zuko said, trying to bring a smile to her face. He pulled away from her so he could see her face. "We'll figure this out."

Katara smiled back weakly in return. "Ok."

"Now, tell me exactly what happened."

Katara took a deep breath. "I went to do my morning meditation as usual, but I really wanted the peace to be able to focus, so I decided to meditate in my garden since the water there always soothes me. I've been trying to figure out why I've been sick these past few weeks, so I decided to do a meditation/healing combination. As I went through and relaxed different parts of my body, I let my healing water trail along each area. It was actually working until all of a sudden I started feeling really hot. I got dizzy and I could feel that something was really off. I reached out to the pond for more water so I could cool off, but instead of summoning the water I shot fire!"

Before Zuko could even begin to hazard a guess as to why Katara was suddenly firebending, the door to their chambers burst open, thudding against the stone wall with an echoing _crack._

Katara hadn't been expecting the sudden interruption, and her frazzled nerves caused her to react in shock. She had meant to summon water from the air to send a water whip at the intruders, but instead she somehow reached out to the flames on a nearby cluster of candles and sent them flying towards the door.

Luckily the intruders turned out to be Iroh and Aang, and they both bended the fire away from themselves at the same moment.

"Sorry!" Katara cried out as all eyes turned to focus on her.

"Did – did you just firebend?" Aang asked in amazement.

Katara was busy taking deep, calming breaths, so Zuko answered for her. "It's a new thing, apparently."

"Fascinating," Iroh murmured.

"It's terrifying is what it is!" Katara proclaimed. "I shouldn't be able to do this! My body feels so off; it's like whatever is enabling me to firebend is fighting against my natural tendency to waterbend."

"Have you ever heard of anything like this happening?" Zuko asked Aang.

"Never," the young Avatar replied. "But there has to be some explanation for this. I mean, people don't just randomly start developing the skill to bend other elements. Well, except for me that is."

"Yeah well, I'm not an Avatar," Katara pointed out the obvious. "So something weird is going on."

"Well, let me see if I can sense anything," Aang said as he walked towards Katara. He summoned water from the nearby washing bowl, and allowed it to coat his hands. He waited for the telltale blue healing glow before he slowly started running his hands in front of different places on Katara's body. He moved slowly, for he was still perfecting this skill.

Having watched enough healing session to know that the patient needed to be calm, Zuko continued to rub soothing circles against Katara's back. She sighed softly at the combination of her husband's comforting gesture and the soothing feeling of the healing water against her skin.

But when Aang brought his hands to her lower abdomen, she started feeling off again. Her stomach tightened in discomfort and her temperature shot up a couple of degrees. She felt a tickle in her throat, and in the next instance she sneezed, causing all the candles in the room to flare up in response to some firebending cue.

"Well that was…weird," was the only reply Aang could come up with.

"Did you sense anything?" Katara questioned weakly.

"There was something," Aang admitted. "I'm just not sure what it was. Hang on…" He shifted his stance into an earthbending one, and struck the floor with his feet a few times, sending out vibrations so that he could try to _see _as Toph did. He waited and listened…and…there!

He thought about it for a moment, running through all of his past memories to see if it all made sense. Well, it could explain everything…

"Katara, how long have you been feeling sick?"

"Um, for almost a month now," she answered.

"Has it been like a cold?" Aang wanted to know.

Katara shook her head. "Not really. I've had some dizzy spells and I've been really nauseous. And I've just felt…off."

"And what about your, uh, cycle." Aang had the decency to blush as he asked that rather personal question.

Katara glared at him. "What that does that have anything to do…with…" She trailed off as she finally put the pieces together. "Oh!"

"What?" Zuko asked quickly.

Katara looked at Aang and Iroh, both of whom had big smiles on their faces. Then she looked down at herself and placed a trembling hand over her stomach. "I'm pregnant."

Zuko had the most incredulous look on his face before he lifted Katara up in a hug, letting out a laugh as he did so. "You're pregnant!"

There was a flourish of hugs and well wishes as everyone processed and accepted the news.

"But how does this explain the firebending?" Katara asked when she was again seated on the bed, with Zuko besides her.

"Well, it could have something to do with the two of you being two different benders," Aang theorized. "My guess is that the baby is a firebender and because of that you've gained the temporary ability to control fire."

"I guess it makes some sort of sense," Katara said slowly.

"It is so rare for people from different bending disciplines to marry, let alone have children. This could be why there isn't any previous documentations of this happening," Iroh theorized.

"This is just so weird!" Katara complained. "I'm going to have to learn the basics of firebending aren't I?"

"Well we can't have you setting the palace on fire," Zuko teased gently.

Katara glared at him.

"It'll be all right," Aang assured her. "After all, you have three great teachers at your disposal."

Zuko reached out and grasped Katara's hand. "I'll be right there with you every step of the way," he promised her sincerely.

Katara responded with a soft press of her lips to his. "Just remember that promise when I'm going crazy with hormones and throwing things at your head."

"I think I'll be able to handle that," Zuko said confidently. A sudden though occurred to him, and he shifted his attention to Aang. "You know Aang, this also might explain why Toph has been having trouble _seeing _lately."

A look of confusion settled over the Avatar's features. "What does Katara being pregnant have to do with Toph's earthbending issue?"

Katara caught on quickly. "Maybe the problem isn't with her earthbending. Maybe she can't use her earthbending to see because she's been a little too light on her feet."

It only took Aang a few seconds to understand what his friends were saying about his wife. "We're going to have an Airbender!" he shouted. And with that he was sprinting out the door with the biggest smile on his face.


End file.
